Chalkie AI
Category: AI in Education
AI-powered lesson planning platform that helps teachers create curriculum-aligned lessons, worksheets, and activities in seconds. Chalkie AI was founded in 2024. The company is led by Phil Daneshyar (Phillip Edward Mohsien Daneshyar). Based in London, United Kingdom. Team size: 11-50. Total funding raised: $4M. Latest round: Seed. Key investors include TriplePoint Ventures.
- Founded
- 2024
- Headquarters
- London, United Kingdom
- Team size
- 11-50
- Total funding
- $4M
Value proposition
Chalkie enables teachers to generate complete, classroom-ready lessons and resources from a simple topic input — aligned to any national or state curriculum — saving an average of 5 hours per week on lesson planning and reducing teacher burnout.
Products and solutions
AI Lesson Generator (slides, lesson plans), Lesson Series (multi-lesson units with recaps and quizzes), Activity Sheets (worksheets, differentiated activities), AI Slide Editor (custom themes, AI editing), Standards Alignment (Common Core, NGSS, C3, state standards), Export to PowerPoint, Google Slides, PDF
Unique value
Unique lessons generated per teacher (not cookie-cutter); standards-aligned to any national/state curriculum; differentiated content for varying student abilities; 40+ languages; 100+ countries; free tier available; built by teachers for teachers (founders with deep EdTech experience)
Target customer
K-12 teachers and schools globally (primary focus on UK, US, Australia); expanding into B2B school/district sales
Industries served
Education (K-12 EdTech)
Technology advantage
AI-powered lesson generation with curriculum alignment; proprietary AI models fine-tuned for educational content; slide editor with AI-assisted customization; supports any national curriculum globally; product-led growth with freemium model driving rapid adoption (500K+ teachers in ~18 months)
How they differentiate
Chalkie focuses on generating complete, structured lesson plans with slides, activities, and worksheets in one go — not just content adaptation. Deep curriculum alignment across multiple national/state standards. Strong viral adoption among individual teachers before pivoting to B2B school sales. Founders bring direct EdTech experience (Tutorful, Kanda).
Main competitors
MagicSchool AI, Diffit, Curipod, Edcafe AI, Monsha
Key partnerships
TriplePoint Ventures (investor), OpenAI (acquirer), Y Combinator (Phil Daneshyar alumnus W21)
Notable customers
Used by 500,000+ teachers across 100+ countries including UK, US, and Australia
Major milestones
July 2024: Company incorporated, Oct 2025: £1M pre-seed from TriplePoint Ventures, Mar 2026: £3M ($4M) seed round from TriplePoint Ventures, Apr 19, 2026: Acquired by OpenAI
Growth metrics
500,000+ teachers; 10M+ students; 100+ countries; 40+ languages; 500K+ lessons generated; 90% of teachers agree Chalkie contributes to long-term professional wellbeing; average 5 hours saved per week per teacher
Market positioning
Leading AI-native lesson planning platform for K-12 teachers globally; positioned as the \"Canva for education\" — instant, high-quality curriculum-aligned visual content creation for teachers
Geographic focus
Global (UK, US, Australia as top 3 markets; 100+ countries served)
About Phil Daneshyar (Phillip Edward Mohsien Daneshyar)
Ex-CEO & Co-founder of Kanda (\"Klarna for Home Improvements\", brokered £60M+ loans, Y Combinator W21, appeared on Dragon's Den); previously at 11 Health & Technologies and Thirsti Ltd. Education: University of York.
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Official website: https://chalkie.ai